the only advance handling of run-out is when you have 2 spools of the exact same stuff in the AMS before printing.
Problem 1
When printing practical things I frequently don’t care what color it ends up and would be perfectly happy to have it swap to another spool that I defined before printing started.
I’d like to be able to tell the printer to “use the filament in slot 3 if you run out”
Problem 2
When you run-out and it doesn’t know what to switch to you can’t tell it “the stuff in slot 3”. It will only continue if you put filament in the same slot that ran out. So you have to remove a perfectly usable filament from a different slot, and stick it in the slot that just ran out. This means you have to be physically present to continue the print.
When it doesn’t know what to switch to after run-out, I want the ability to indicate a slot number for it to use on the screen and in the mobile app. This should include the slot number that just ran out so that I still have the option of just replacing it instead of switching slots.
Note
For both of these, a solution should support the fact that some people have multiple AMSs and allow us to specify which slot in which AMS.
Not sure about problem 2 but the easy fix for problem 1, at least if you know it will run out during the print, is to lie to the printer. Tell it the back up spool is the same brand, type and color. It will happily switch to the second spool. I have a couple of printed spools that are 2, 3 and even 4 colors using this method to use up spools with just a few meters on them. One of those spools lived in the bottom drawer of my stand without drying or a bag since 2018 and it worked fine for the purpose.
and remove the RFID if its a BAMBU spool, unless I havent found the way yet, I cant tell the AMS to IGNORE an RFID it reads, so I cannot fake a Bambu PLA Black 5 meters left, to finish off a Sunlu PLA Black … I have to use the Bambu one first… and Fake the Sunlu into Bambu … for example.
Still a good idea and thank for sharing it @lasermike we prollly all do it to some extent but dont realy mention it, that being said … #2 would fix it all…
Yes, that’s a decent workaround, and thanks for pointing it out, but there have been many times when i thought there was enough, and was wrong. Also, we shouldn’t have to trick our tools in order to accomplish reasonable things.
I second this request. It’s absurd that I run out of black ASA and have another brand of black Asa and literally can’t continue my print. Even though I told it not to use the lesser spool. It did anyways, ran out, and grid locked. Wasted $$$$$$. Please fix this ridiculous problem.
Can we please get an update from Bambu on this? This is an old thread now. My first time posting here, do they tend to respond or at least react to these posts?
I’ve had the AMS continue onto other spool positions for big prints once, maybe twice. I have always had the option ticked for it to continue to using a different spool number (providing that spool is set to have the same characteristics as the previous ie. brand colour etc as we all know) but it WILL NOT work now.
Can someone explain to me how to get this option to work? Will it only engage if you select that option in the slicer as well as on the printer? Renders the AMS completely useless if you have to be there ready to change spools manually. I have all the spools set to “Generic Black PETG” is this the problem?
So I definitely have those parameters set for the spools. It won’t switch though. However you said and/or the slicer. Is it definitely “or” or does this need to be set in the slicer when you send the print to the machine? I have double checked mid print that the option is physically selected on the printer during the print but it makes no difference.
I’ll do another test with selecting it from the slicer because I have had it work before but I do feel like this was because I made sure it was checked in the slicer as well.
It appears the slicer now has it on by default and will automatically do it if you have matching settings.
The A1 series has an option on the printer, which needs to be enabled. The P series doesn’t have the same setting on its screen. I do not know about the X series.
It should just work, it always has in my experience.
X1C has the option as a tick box (definitely checked).
Well that’s even more annoying that it’s on by default in the slicer cannot get it to swap nowadays if I have 4 generic black PETG spools in and labelled correctly. Come to think of it, it has been months since this feature has worked for me, maybe closer to 12 months.
Thanks for your responses. I’ll keep messing around with it. Just a pain in the ass to test because unless I have spools with not much filament left on them to throw into the AMS it’s a difficult one to troubleshoot.
It’s actually easy to test. Load up any spool. Once the print has started, snip the filament between the spool and the ams inlet. This simulates the spool running out.
The run-out feature has to be enabled on the printer.
When you send the print from Studio you can pick what slot is being used. Here mine defaulted to A4 (The full spool) but you can pick A2 to start the print from.
You can verify what slot is set for backup by clicking on the “Auto Refill” text.
Here is a link to a thread if you want to autofill with a different color of filament.
Old thread but a feature that I think is really needed (because i just ran out and wasnt home to swap out lol) just let me pick the other spool, without tricks and having to move the filament over
Another bump to this old thread. New to printing in general, but trying to hit the ground running. Started a bigger print (for me), and in the same conundrum. Basic PLA in white ran out, I have three other spools of PLA in different colors on the AMS. All Bambulabs with the RFID.
I’m printing a prop gun for cosplay, and I’ll be post-processing the piece so I don’t care what color it is. I had opted for the “Auto Refill”, under the impression that the same brand and material type would work, but nope, it seems to not like the difference in color.
I feel like this is an easy fix where we as the user could just be prompted if we’re okay with the color change or not, so it could continue with printing?
Now I have to wait 7+ hours to get home from work, just to physically do this change, for an 8 hour print that could have been almost done by the time I got home.
It seems like a simple thing, they took the time to make it care about the differences in filament off rip, let us tell it not to care if we want to.
I’m also playing this frustrating game of musical spools! I am printing a shop project in Bambu PLA green (AMS slot 1). Spool ran out and am happy changing to any color. I had Bambu PLA black in AMS slot 2.
I got lucky in that I happened to be in the room when the spool ran out.
I had to pull the black filament out of slot 2 and move it to slot 1
Why couldn’t I have prepared the machine ahead of time with a replacement plan? Surely this is an easy software fix?
I bought the AMS especially for this feature which is available on Creality X series printers. On these printers you can associate a backup spool to each AMS entry, regardless of the color.
I discovered that on Bambu lab printers with AMS you can’t even replace a Bambu PLA with a generic one : I expected at least to be able to replace a generic PLA regardless of the brand.
It could be related to flow rate, but on multi-material prints the flow rate computation is only done with the first layer material.
This feature has been asked two years ago : could someone from Bambu labs explain why they can’t do it?
I don’t like this solution at all: the printer is expected to adapt many settings to suits the new material.
That’s the reason why we have RFID tags for Bambu lab filaments (and maybe compatible ones from other brands someday??).
I would like the run out détection to use the real material parameters: if I want to replace a PETG spool with PLA (because… it was my last PETG spool !), then it is my choice and the printer should do what it can do for planned multicolor prints to adapt hotend temperature and retraction properties as expected.
The result may be bad, but not as bad as halting the print for several days until I receive a new spool of PETG! In this case I would rather stop the print and call it a miss.
cannot get it to swap nowadays if I have 4 generic black PETG spools in and labelled correctly. Come to think of it, it has been months since this feature has worked for me, maybe closer to 12 months.
